The present invention relates to splice holders and more particularly to improved splice holders for fiber optic cables.
Fiber optic cables usually require splicing of several such cables together. Splices are used to connect various cables together. To prevent the splices from being damaged, splice holders are provided in which the splices can be placed and easily removed when necessary, such as repair work by a technician. To minimize any damage to and to provide resiliency to frictionally hold the splices, the splice holders are typically made from a foam material. The foam material lacks structural integrity and is required to be mounted on a hard plastic housing for structural support by way of double-sided tape or other methods of attachment. The plastic housing is adapted to be mounted in a fiber optic tray by way of double-sided tape or other methods of attachment. The various parts of prior art splice holders require separate manufacturing processes and assembly steps which increase the cost of such splice holders and often times add to the difficulty of installing additional splice holders in cramped operating environment.
The present invention avoids these problems and provides a splice holder made from a single resilient piece of material which can be firmly mount on a fiber optic tray without a corresponding plastic housing or adhesive. Hence, the number of parts used by the splice holder and the expense in making it is reduced substantially.
In accordance with the present invention the splice holder is made from a soft material, such as rubber or polyethylene, which is resilient and flexible to provide frictionally holding of splices and has sufficient stiffness itself to provide structural support to the holder for mounting directly onto a tray without a separate housing. Tabs protrude from the edges of the splice holder for mounting the holder directly onto a fiber optic tray. The fiber optic tray includes latches to receive the tabs. The splice holder is bent or bowed about the center and its tabs engage and enter the latches in the fiber optic tray to hold the splice holder in place.